Up until now I have not used the proof order system from CS for cost plus impatience.
Nearly finished new book and am thinking of ordering say three copies to give to proofreaders, so the cost then becomes viable. But what about delivery times? Any UK authors (David?) ordered proofs recently? How long did they take to arrive?

According to the definitive guide on all this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Punk-Publishin ... publishing, there are three modes: standard, expedited and priority, 20, 16 and 8 days respectively. When you go to order, you can change your shipping speed and it'll estimate arrival dates, so you can experiment. Costs vary, obviously, it's speed versus cost, and that'll show up too as you change option.

Take into consideration that certain times of the year have delays. Apparently the US has these things called labor (sic) day, thanksgiving, independence day and other such nonsense (what's wrong with just having the Queen's Birthday, we have cake and jelly, what more do you need), and these celebrations can add a few days.

I just orderd a proof on 18th October and it arrived on the 27th October, that's 9 days and I went for priority. (Waste of money getting it quicker now I think about it, because I've not had two seconds to rub together to check it.) That was $19.67, which was $5.29 for one copy of the book, $14.38 for shipping. (£14.97 plus non-sterling transaction fee of £0.44, so £15.41.) As you increase the number of books, so the $5.29 gets multiplied, but the shipping gets increased by less each time the box goes up in size. (Two The Derring-Do Club and the Invasion of the Grey proofs cost $7.09 each and $17.77 for shipping coming to a total of $31.95, whereas five The Derring-Do Club and the Year of the Chrononauts proofs costs $6.15 with shipping of $27.94 coming to a total of $58.69.)

My one book went through the letter box, boxes don't and so you have to stay in. Only Priority and Expedited (sometimes) let you track the parcel.

So really not a lot has changed. When you add the cost of not very fast priority it comes to a great deal more than buying your book on Amazon prime at the minimum price and getting next day but one delivery. This is what I have been doing up till now and closing all distribution channels as soon as I am advised of dispatch. Admittedly it is not a proof copy per se, but it has served my limited requirements.

I live in Australia and have found the only viable method is to use CS at normal delivery. Takes about 10 working days, which I can live with. I have found that ordering my books in lots of ten as opposed to lots of 50 for my book signing works out cheaper by a substantial amount. I saved about $2 USD per book ordering this way. Of course the cost of delivery is still over the top. Amazon Prime does not help for me as delivery price is more than CS. I feel that approving your book for publication to get a proof copy for yourself is a good way to get yourself in a fix if you ever have issues with quality by a customer or yourself. You have no actual proof copy of an error free version to prove what you approved. Just my two cents. Have a great day.
Joe.

Here, UK, we've been using a local printers for our author copies, which is considerably cheaper. Of course, no good as a Createspace proof. Local proofs are £24. I am wondering about gambling on the next one and going straight to copies having viewed the free 'soft proof' of some PDFs.

I understand your table David and appreciate that there are savings on say twenty copies but I was specifically concerned about "proof" or more accurately for me "proofreading" copies of just two or three.

To be honest Joe, I have never understood the rationale of a "proof" copy for dispute purposes when dealing with CS and Amazon. Both would be too big to take on in the courts and in any case both have excellent refund and returns policies. I have never had to invoke the policy with CS but have had occasional quality and non delivery problems with Amazon which have been resolved with replacement copies expeditiously. Can't ask for more.

The proof that is ultimately approved is usually called a contract proof. It shows what the printer can print from your print-ready PDFs, and when you accept it, it shows that you accept that quality of printing.

On a one or two occasions, I have been asked to include scans of manufacturing barcodes showing the good (contract proof) vs the bad books. Since then I generally do include them . . . I make sure to put the images together in a PDF and I carefully label each image/page so there is little room for confusion.

There could be reasons where a contract proof would be vital in court proceedings . . . for example, a non-fiction book that was heavily revised but the previous, unrevised copy, ends up being printed. I have had both happen to me, one, where the revised file did not replace the unrevised file and both co-existed in the CS system. The second a book involving an organized crime figure's autobiography: to get media perils insurance some things had to be altered; however, the author's personal attorney told me to proceed with uploading, approving, and enabling distribution of the unrevised copy, and before there was coverage. You can imagine I hung on to the final proof copy.

Ed, I am of the old school of belief where such things are concerned. I would rather have proof/back-up and not need it than the other way around. For me, it is just an assurance that if things get cock-eyed I can send them a scan of what I have approved, as Walton said. I also have found CS to be very generous with their policies, sending more copies of a particular book when I queried their non-appearance on a certain date when others on the same order arrived.
Cheers,
Joe.

I will accept that for some, or even many, the concept of the proof copy is important. Perhaps I should have clarified in my earlier post, that I cannot conceive in my own work that a proof copy would ever be relevant. Many of you have been publishing longer and much more prolifically than me so you may have come across circumstances when a proof copy could be relevant. Many will no doubt think it daft, but having spent a year or more writing and many months formatting and reformatting ,then when I finally push the button for "submit" I want see that printed copy. Three weeks or more for it to come from the US is too long. So I will risk not having a proof copy.

I wanted to order a proof of my book today, but its $8.69 plus $17.70 shipping takes 8 days :O this seems extortion since my book will be £10 once listed. So i just went ahead after approving the pdf proof, obviously this doesnt show me the cover, quality etc but i am assuming the pdf should be accurate? My cover passed all the submission etc but now i am stressing ive released a book to market ive yet to see in its physical form! Should i of just paid and waited??